MSU Events Calendar

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Michigan State University and the MSU Museum, in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Museum and the Keeper of the Word Foundation, helped civil rights leader and former South African President Nelson Mandela celebrate his 90th birthday with a powerful cultural exchange program. The special exhibition "Dear Mr. Mandela... Mrs. Parks: Children's Letters, Global Lessons" opened in July 2008 at the Nelson Mandela National Museum in Mthatha, South Africa, Mandela's birthplace in the Eastern Cape Province.

That exhibition is still on view in South Africa, and now a U.S. version comes to the Michigan State University Museum. The inspiration for "Dear Mr. Mandela... Mrs. Parks" came from the hundreds of children around the world who have written letters to two individuals--Nelson Mandela of South Africa and the late Rosa Parks of the United States--who are internationally known for their work in human rights. The letters reveal why children revere Mandela and Parks and also young people's desires for guidance and understanding about life.